


Teachers and parental relationships

by CyanoFal



Category: Glee
Genre: Abuse, Archived from cyanoticfallacy blog, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 16:37:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16916451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanoFal/pseuds/CyanoFal
Summary: Notes on how parental relationships influenced characters' relationships to instructors. Particular focus on Mr. Schuester with mentions of Finn, Quinn, and Mercedes as well. - Originally posted May 26, 2018 on cyanoticfallacy blog





	Teachers and parental relationships

You are an amalgamation of the people in your lives and especially of the people who raised you. I am rewatching On My Way and listening to Mr. Schuester talk about how he almost committed suicide instead of facing his dad when he got cheating on a test and understanding his need for perfection and need to win and how much he expects from all his students. And I’m understanding how his toughness on them and how he yells at them is a remnant of how he learned how to talk to kids from his dad.

And characters like Finn who grew up with a single mom see this and think this is just what male parents are like. Characters like Quinn who grew up with a dad who yelled at them and criticized them see this as more of the same and because of his gentle moments they see him as a role model because he is better than the dad who’d throw you out. Characters like Mercedes who grew up with parents who knew how to parent and delivered lessons with kindness know when a teacher is just being a bully and that’s why she’s one of the few who can call him out for his behavior.

~

Oh dang and I am understanding his appreciation for Lillian Adler and the glee club a lot more because Ms. Adler was that kind older adult figure in his life that gave him the stability he needed and the encouragement he craved and that’s what he saw Finn needed that he wasn’t getting in football and that’s what he wanted to give to other kids as a teacher and I can’t believe I am having all this sympathy for Will and this feels like stage four of being a Gleek or something.

“I see a lot of myself in you” it was never about Finn being the popular leading man because that was never Will. It was about having all this passion and needing a supportive teacher to encourage it, and Will got that from Ms. Adler and he wanted to double what he got for Finn.

~

finnhudsoninoz's contribution - "This is 1000% stage four of becoming (a specific kind of) Gleek. Social media is performative and stymies many of the most valuable elements of good textual analysis. There is dialogue in season one alleging that Will is the best man that Lima has to offer. The characters who say this are, by and large, correct. Look at the other adults. For some reason that I’m not currently confident about, Lima produces hypercompetent, overworked teenagers who crumble around their mid twenties and collapse into sad mediocrity. Will is typical. He is a cynical portrait of the liberal white man. And he’s the best they’ve got."

~

It’s a very millennial TV show in that sense because we have all these overachieving teens who get told if they get straight A’s they’ll get scholarships and jobs but then they face the adult world and find out everyone’s doing that and then they lose confidence.

Will seems to be “the best” because he recognized this in himself and now he wants to give others that confidence. And people recognize that intention because the other teachers have given up on the students, except for Emma who flies under the radar (for obvi reasons). His methods are suspect, but he’s a whole step better than the other teachers who are outright abusive (Sue, Sandy) which makes him the best and makes him a second gen abused kid.


End file.
